BIR conducts zonal valuations of lands in Pangasinan

DAGUPAN CITY –The Bureau of Internal Revenue held recently a public hearing on zonal valuation of the 14 towns and two cities in Central Pangasinan, according to the chief of the Revenue District Office-4 .

NEW VALUATION OF LAND. Revenue District Office-4 Chief Merlyn Vicente explains to stakeholders in a public hearing conducted last Thursday in Dagupan City the new assessment of real properties in Central Pangasinan the Bureau of Internal Revenue, assessors of towns and cities, and other members of the technical committee on property valuation had listed. MORTZ ORTIGOZA

RDO-4 Chief Merlyn Vicente said the hearing would be used for valuation of new sales, estate, and donor taxes of real properties. She said the increase in valuation is done because the government needs more monies to fund its workers and projects.

“This is not to be used in the collection of RPT (real property taxes), but only sales, donations and real estate taxes, ” she stressed.

Assistant Revenue District Office’ Chief Trina Villamil said the hearing last Thursday was dubbed “Public Hearing of the Revision of Zonal Valuation of Municipalities and Cities covered by RDO-4”.

RDO-4 is based in Calasiao, Pangasinan and covers Dagupan and San Carlos cities and the 14 towns around them.

Villamil said the hearing was attended by members of the technical committee on property valuation, BIR Region-1 Regional Director Marina C. de Guzman, Assistant Regional Director Antonio Jonathan G. Jaminolo, the members of the sub-technical committee, assessors from the 16 local government units and the provincial government.

“The zonal valuation should be updated every three years as mandated by the tax code,” Villamil told the crowd during the hearing.

Vicente said Revenue Memorandum Order 41 empowers the municipal and city assessors, the appraisers, and the BIR to create a sub-technical committee to establish a zonal valuation.

During the hearing, Sta. Barbara town’s Assessor Eliazar T. Cabangon questioned the high valuation per square meter in his town compared to that of San Carlos City,

“In Manaoag per square meter is so huge in peso terms compared to the P395 per square meter in San Carlos City,” he said.

The municipal assessor of Manaoag cited too that assessment of real properties in San Carlos are low and need another round of review.

But Villamil said San Carlos City has more far-flung barangays and said the highest valuation in that city was P2,800 per square meter..

“There are no high rise buildings, no water refilling stations in many of those villages in San Carlos City,” argued by the assessor of that city.